Since I found out that a person was searched on this forum for not having his/her ID on her, I realized that as *free* citizens we must, as our duty not let our natural rights ever be infringed upon. So, I am sending this 45 minute film as to what to do, to not be manipulated by these types of forces.

I am not a Swiss Constitution expert, but people should know the Constitution and although it is different law than the US Constitution, which was created to not let the citizens get screwed with, I am sure there must be more rights here to not be searched against our will! Ask the question, "Am I free to go?" "Is that a legal question?" "Do you have the Constitutional Authority to search Me Against My Will?"

I fail to see how some American expert video can tell Swiss residents anything about their rights in Switzerland.

forgive me if I don't watch your video. I haven't been searched in 15 years here.....and I don't carry anything more than a driving licence. And yes, I've been stopped by police for henous crimes like cycling in a tram lane and <gasp> speeding

Horrible acting.. I tried to watch it I swear but I couldn't get past the 3 minute mark.

I don't expect this to be 100% applicable to Switzerland, but check it out anyway. It's funny:

I was searched here once, but I was where I really shouldn't have been - I got caught in a kettle while photographing the 1st of May riots. The police accepted without question my driving license as ID. They were very polite as well.

I never carry my permit as it's one of the old paper ones, and as such it's too big to fit in my wallet, and carrying it around with me will eventually reduce it to tatters.

So IME a driving license is perfectly acceptable as ID.

As for the video I, as well, fail to see how an American example has any relevance here. My advice to anybody who gets searched here would be to politely go along with it. It'll generally be over fairly quickly. It's when people start yelling about their various rights (which may or may not apply here), and being obnoxious about it, that the problems will start.

I go along with this, except the part of talking to the police. Don't do it. Any benefits of opening one's trap will be ignored as hearsay should it get to court, and anything negative will get you in the doo doo. People get nervous talking to cops and start to babble. Solution = don't babble. Demand legal counsel before making any statements (beyond name, address, etc.)

By the way, do I have always to carry an ID here in Switzerland?

what do you mean "was searched on this forum"??

No, you don't have to carry it - but if asked you must be able to produce it within a reasonable time.
ID Requirements

Top of the page, third from the right.

True, but if you do carry some form of ID then it will almost certainly make things a lot smoother should you have a "Stop and Search". Plus you won't have the inconvenience of having to go to a police station at some later date just to show it.

I lived in Scotland before I came to Switzerland. As I am not 45 yet, and lived less than 10 years in Scotland, I was not required to replace my german driving license there. Unfortunately I lost my wallet just weeks before going to Scotland, and as I did not have a UK License, I had to ask for evidence of my License from Germany, and it did not arrive before I went to Switzerland.
I drove from Scotland to Switzerland without my License, and had just been in Switzerland for 20 minutes, when I got stopped by the police. UK car in Brugg at 3 AM might have seemed suspicious for them, so they wanted to see my license and passport, work permit "Ausländer Ausweis", which I did not have yet.
I chose to cooperate with them, tell them, I did not have a license. I could not even prove, I had a german license previously, I realized, I had forgotten my insurance papers, but stayed friendly, answered their questions, and in the end I got a fine. - the fine was because the garage in UK had put 2 different tires on my car. (The tires were exactly the same brand and model, but one tyre had a line more in the pattern than the other).

I wonder how my encounter with the Aargauer Kantonal police had turned out, if I had chosen to ask to see their badge numbers, which laws entitled them to ask to where I was going, which laws allowed them to look in the boot of my car etc.

Doc.

v droll, Doc!
when they stopped you, did you begin with:

vermutlich werden sie dieser Geschichte nicht glauben, aber................. ??

All sounds good really, doesn't it ? stop them searching you, stop them asking for ID, know your rights. That'll teach 'em.

For another roleplay, lets move the scene slightly. Lets say I'm a mugger tooled up with some weapon out to beat the living daylights out of anybody vunerable I can see. Stopped by a local copper they ask to search me and using the clever techniques these people offer I dissuade the police from searching me using various legal and constitutional threats.

Free to go I smash the head in of some old codger and spend it on some more smack. Not sure what happens to them, maybe they die, dunno. But the video certainly proved its use.

Am I being completely stupid - I can't find the video!!

Yes.

But it might be that your employer blocks YouTube. And rightly so....it sucks 80% of our bandwidth

In the first post of this thread - is it not showing up for you?

No, I can't see it all - I have noticed this before when posters have referred to videos and clips ... d0 you think Mozilla blocks them?

You made chortle!


That made me laugh too. I once drove a car in Malaysia that had four different tyres. Even the spare tyre was different.

Even innocent sounding things can get misinterpreted/reinterpreted to mean something else in court and not only can be used against you but will. Number one rule of advice by defense attorneys in the US: keep your trap shut. Don't know the rules here....

Mozilla doesn't, but as Boxman said your employer may.
Or you may be missing a plugin... do you see anything at all up there (usually a box with a jigsaw piece)?